D. Gottlieb & Co.

Overview

D. Gottlieb & Co. was established in 1927 by David Gottlieb and eventually became one of the premier pinball manufacturers in the world. In addition to pinball tables, Gottlieb also produced other arcade games like pitch-and-bats and bowling games. The company was purchased by Columbia Pictures in 1977.

Gottlieb began producing video arcade games in the early 1980's. Their biggest hit was the game Q*bert, which was ported to most of the popular home console systems of the day.

In 1983, Gottlieb and its parent company Columbia were acquired by the Coca-Cola Company. A management coup occurred and the company's pinball assets were transferred to a new subsidiary dubbed Mylstar Electronics.

In 1984, Coca Cola sought to divest itself of Mylstar. A management group led by Gilbert G. Pollock purchased Mylstar's pinball assets in October 1984 and continued the manufacture of pinball machines under a new company, Premier Technology. Premier continued in operation until the summer of 1996, when the decreasing demand for pinball forced the company out of business. Premier did not file for bankruptcy, but sold off all its assets for the benefit of its creditors.

Today, Gottlieb's pinball games (along with those distributed under the Mylstar and Premier names), as well as the trademark on the Gottlieb name are owned by a holding group, Gottlieb Development LLC, under the direction of Mondial International Corp. The rights to the Gottlieb/Mylstar video games, however, appear to have been retained by Columbia.